Parenting styles
Parenting styles and the impact on children Since the early 1920’s, developmental psychologists have been interested in how parents influence the development of children. The most common approach for this study has been looking at what is called the “parenting style.” This article intends to define parenting styles, examine the different styles and consider the […]
Teaching kids to say sorry and mean it
Teaching kids to say sorry is a relatively easy feat, but most young children will simply shout a casual “sorry!” over their shoulder and then carry on to repeat the exact same behaviour they had apologised for moments before. You might have seen the broken plate scenario featured on posters and posts on popular media […]
Better parenting – how to move towards a democratic parenting style
It’s almost a given that if you spent time in ten different homes, then you would see a variation in different parenting styles in each one of those ten domains, as well as at different times. However, authoritative or democratic parenting, which balances explicit demands with emotional awareness and respect of their child’s independence, is […]
Why crawling is important
A vital part of my assessments includes establishing when a particular child achieved their developmental milestones (sitting, crawling, walking, talking, etc). And very often I come across cases where children simply went from sitting, to bum shuffling to walking and never crawled. Some parents see this as a sign of advanced development, but crawling is […]
Is there a link between the MMR-vaccine and Autism?
It is a debate that I thought had been settled a while ago and something we no longer needed to be concerned over – but recent reports have caused this hot topic (and tempers on both sides of the debate) to flare up again. For those of you that are hearing about this for […]
Kids learning – guiding principles for parents
With so many different types of Education programmes, products, philosophies and schools of thought out there it can be incredibly confusing for parents to know how to stimulate a young child’s development or how to approach teaching and learning with older children. Children all learn in different ways, but no matter which school of thought […]
Addressing obesity in children
Our previous article about the psychological effects of obesity in children highlighted the devastating effect these children’s weight can have on their social and emotional development. In this article we are going to look at some of the ways in which parents can help undo some of the damage caused by obesity. 1. Help your […]
Kids learning: What is auditory perception?
Kids Learning: What is Auditory Perception? Put simply, auditory perception refers to the interpretation of information sent to the brain via the ears and as such covers much more than just functional hearing. Children experiencing auditory perceptual problems hear words differently from the way other children hear them. They confuse similar sounding words (e.g. train […]
Kids learning: The importance of puzzles
Looking to buy an Educational toy but feeling a little overwhelmed by all the options? If in doubt – buy a puzzle. Puzzles are absolutely great (not only because they allow tired parents a few precious moments of respite while they’re little ones are building them) but also because they help to enhance so […]
Help: My child doesn’t like puzzles
I recently received the following e-mail from a reader: Q: Hi Anel. I have a four year old boy who just does not like doing puzzles. His teacher keeps telling us how important puzzles are and that we should practice doing them at home. I’ve sat down with him so many times to build […]